


Rest

by meridianpony



Series: Dominoes [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Transformation, Beta Squad, Dominoes-verse, Fluff and Crack, Gen, Loth-cats, Yeah this is just an excuse to write domino squad as cats, and get fives to rest for once in his life, domino squad - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25919743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meridianpony/pseuds/meridianpony
Summary: “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Fives snarls.“I don’t… I don’t think this is a joke, Fives,” Droidbait says nervously—meows, actually, because Droidbait is a loth-cat. Inexplicably. Impossibly.So is Fives. And so is Cutup.(Domino squad get turned into loth-cats.)
Series: Dominoes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/958695
Comments: 33
Kudos: 469





	Rest

**Author's Note:**

> An anon on tumblr sent me an ask saying that they have five kittens that they have named after domino squad and told me that kitten Fives looks like he has a mustache. Hence this was born. 
> 
> ...I don't have a cat. I've never had a cat. I don't know how cats act or what cat body language is. I am the least-qualified person to write a cat fic but I did this anyway a;sldkfja;sldfk
> 
> Set in the dominoes-verse, but NOT canon to that story ha!

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Fives snarls.

“I don’t… I don’t think this is a joke, Fives,” Droidbait says nervously—meows, actually, because Droidbait is a _loth-cat._ Inexplicably. Impossibly. 

So is Fives. And so is Cutup.

The barracks are _massive_ around them. Fives shakes his head in horror. It’s even worse when he can feel muscles that he shouldn’t have twitching and moving as he does. His ears… they can move in _so many directions._ Not to mention the kriffing _tail._

“Alright, just… there’s gotta be an explanation behind this,” Fives says, sitting back uneasily onto his back legs. “Someone will be able to fix us—the Jedi could… do _something,_ I think, I don’t know—”

“Whoa,” Cutup says, staring down at his paws and letting his claws extend and retract, extend and retract. “That’s… kind of cool, actually.” He flexes his claws against the fabric of his abandoned blacks below him experimentally. He looks up at Fives and suddenly chokes on a laugh. Fives rounds on him, tail lashing involuntarily.

“What’s so funny?”

“Your hair… fur, I guess… it looks like you have a mustache,” Cutup sniggers. Fives growls at him—this is _so not the time_. It isn’t the most threatening sound, but it works to some effect. Cutup’s eyes go wide. He nearly trips clumsily over his paws as he scrambles to put some distance between them. Droidbait curls in on himself, tucking his tail around his paws and flattening his ears against his skull.

“Guys, can we not fight?” he meows plaintively. “We’ve gotta figure out what happened—”

Fives’ tail twitches again. He spares Cutup another dangerous look, but Cutup is spared from Fives’ wrath by the sound of a frustrated yowl from the hallway. 

“Oh, kriff. Hevy and Echo!” Cutup gasps. He darts for the door. Fives goes to follow him and is impressed at the speed that his tiny body can achieve. As long as he doesn’t trip over his own feet… paws… whichever, he can really move when he needs to.

The barracks door doesn’t open immediately—the three of them have to leap up to trigger the motion sensor, which isn’t too hard either. They can get higher than Fives had thought possible. Maybe the odd transformation isn’t actually that bad—

Then he pokes his head into the hallway and recoils in horror. 

“Guys! Help! I can’t get him off of me!” Hevy cries, scratching fruitlessly at Hardcase’ greaves. Hevy is puffing himself up to make himself look bigger, but it’s not doing him any good. Hardcase, however, looks like he’s having the time of his life, cradling Hevy in his arms and _cooing_ at him in the middle of the hall. Which, ugh. Fives can’t decide if he wants to vomit or if it’s just a hairball. 

“Back up!” Cutup hisses in alarm, but they’re not fast enough. Hardcase glances down. His eyes go very very wide.

“Holy. Kriff. There’s _more of them._ Jesse! Jesse, get the kriff over here!”

“Oh no, oh no oh no— _scatter!”_ Fives yelps. Droidbait and Cutup obey even as Hardcase drops to one knee in order to swoop one giant hand towards them. _Force,_ he’s massive. Fives barely manages to avoid the fingers that reach out. Behind Hardcase, Jesse rounds the corner of the hallway and gasps. 

“What the—”

“Catch them!” Hardcase shouts gleefully. Jesse stops dead, stares, and then dives straight for Fives. Fives hisses at him and makes a desperate leap for freedom, because he is _not_ going to be coddled like that today, no, not now, not ever, it’s _humiliating and he won’t_ —

* * *

“Fives.”

“Mmm.”

“Fives. You’re purring.”

“Kriff off,” Fives mumbles. The words rumble around in his chest. Vaguely he realizes that he is indeed purring, but he can’t really make himself care. Tup is warm and when his fingers scritch just right over Fives’ skull it sends the most pleasant little tingles down his spine and _so what if he’s purring it doesn’t mean anything, shut up, Cutup._

Hevy had been rescued from Hardcase by Del and has been shunted around since then, passed from Coric to Dogma to Jesse. Cutup is perched happily on Tipper’s knee. Droidbait is free, but he’s winding his way around Kix’s ankles to ask for more scratches instead of escaping, the traitor. 

Though… to be fair, Fives could probably escape if he tried. It’s not like Tup is keeping him in place, but… but, uh, it’s a long drop to the floor. Yeah. Who knows if Fives would survive a fall. Not worth the risk, no, absolutely not. That explains it. Fives is stuck, no doubt about it.

Tup’s fingers run down Fives’ spine. He arches into the touch and purrs again. Tup grins down at him fondly.

“So… what should we name them?” Jesse wonders aloud. Fives groans. 

“It’s _us_ , you idiots. I’m _Fives._ Hear me?” he huffs out. For a moment there’s silence, and Fives dares to hope that he’s been understood—

“Sithspit. That is the cutest sound I’ve ever heard,” Nax deadpans. Fives has to resist the urge to snap at Tup’s fingers in annoyance. Tup doesn’t deserve that, so he restrains himself, but it’s a close thing.

“We’re keeping them, right?” Hardcase says. “Come on, we have to!” 

Cutup rolls his eyes. Hevy lets out a muffled sound of protest. Fives sighs. Droidbait stifles a laugh, tail waving happily in the air as Kix’s fingers run through his fur. 

The door to the barracks suddenly slides open to admit Captain Rex. The men go to jump to attention, but they freeze when they fully register the sight of their CO. Echo is sitting proudly on the Captain’s pauldron, ears pricked up as high as they’ll go. His tail is looped loosely around his paws, and he looks smug. Beta squad’s mouths collectively drop open. 

“There’s _another one?”_ Hardcase whispers. Echo sends him an unimpressed look as Rex holds out his hand in order to lower Echo gently to the floor. Droidbait immediately abandons Kix to rush for Echo, nosing him anxiously to make sure he’s alright. Echo bats at him half-heartedly.

“Your nose is cold, DB, holy kriff. Okay, alright, I’m fine!”

“I know, I know, I’m just making sure!” Droidbait tells him, curling himself up against Echo’s flank gratefully. Echo leans against him obligingly and turns to look back up at Rex. The Captain suddenly heaves the longest sigh Fives has ever heard from him, which… really isn’t a good sign. Beta squad tenses in concern. 

“Sir…?” Del prompts quietly. Rex clenches his jaw. 

“I’m comming the General,” he grits out. “We aren’t equipped to handle this.”

“Wh—what are you talking about, sir?” Tipper says in offense. “They’re just a couple of loth-cats, sir… I mean, they’re _kittens._ I think we can handle it—”

“Fives, Cutup, Hevy. Can you three come down here for a second?” Rex deadpans, sounding like he’d much rather be fighting a platoon of battle droids than dealing with magical transformations right now. Fives huffs and shuffles to his feet, reluctantly removing himself from Tup’s gentle hold. It’s a lot harder to manage a jump with four legs, but somehow his tail acts as an odd counterbalance and allows him to drop to the floor smoothly. 

Huh. Well, turns out the floor wasn’t actually that far down. Oh well. He sits down next to his batchmates in front of Captain Rex and stares back at the rest of Beta squad, tail lashing, challenging them to just _try_ and pick him up again. Fives has claws and he’ll use them.

...unless it’s Tup. Tup is the only exception. 

“Wait. Captain, you’re not seriously telling me that—” Kix starts. Rex interrupts him with a raise of his hand. 

“Del, you asked me if I had any idea where the rest of your squad had disappeared to a few minutes ago. Here they are,” the Captain says tiredly. Fives glances at Echo as the rest of the room goes dead silent.

“Oh, thank the Force. You got him to figure it out?”

“Yeah. Typed it out on his datapad. I was near the bridge when it happened, so it wasn’t too hard to get to his office.” Echo licks his own paw. Cutup makes a strangled sound. 

“Echo. You’re… you’re. Licking yourself.”

“Huh? Oh.” Echo blinks at his paw for a moment in surprise. “I didn’t even realize…”

“That’s… Domino squad? Are you serious?” Tipper says incredulously. 

“Unfortunately.” The Captain raises an eyebrow at Domino squad inquisitively. “Kenobi, or Skywalker?”

“What kind of question is that?” Echo complains. “Kenobi. Do you really have to ask?”

Fives agrees. Not that General Skywalker couldn’t figure this out, but General Kenobi will probably fix it faster. Maybe. Hopefully. 

“Right, dumb question,” Rex agrees, even though there’s no way he could have understood what Echo had said. “I’ll be on the Communications deck to let General Kenobi know. Until then, stay _here._ Beta squad, watch them. Understood?”

He doesn’t wait for their affirmations, turning on his heel and leaving the barracks. Fives feels a thrill of horror. 

“Wait a second, wait wait _wait,_ ” Fives says, scrambling for the door, “Rex, don’t leave us with them, this is humiliating, they’re gonna—wait—!”

It’s too late. The Captain is gone. Fives’ ears droop. He stares up at the massive door in front of him in dejection. Oh no. 

“ _Force,_ he looks so sad. Someone grab him,” one of his horrible, terrible, awful brothers mutters. Fives gets scooped up unceremoniously by a large hand. He’s half a second from sinking his teeth into the finger closest to his mouth when suddenly that very finger scratches under Fives’ chin. Fives goes limp. Mmmmm Force, it’s nice. 

“Alright, Fives. At least, I think you’re Fives. Calm down,” Hardcase says, grinning in amusement. “We’ll keep you safe, don’t worry.” Fives glares at him. Hardcase chuckles. “Yep, you’re Fives, alright. No doubt about it.”

Fives nips at his finger anyway just to hear Hardcase hiss in pain, but then Hardcase stubbornly scratches under Fives’ chin again and Fives’ eyes slide closed. He can hear his batchmates receiving similar treatment from Beta squad, some protesting more than others. He opens one eye to check on them—Hevy is snarling curses, but Tup has him, so Hevy’s temper won’t last long. Dogma’s hands reverently stroke over Echo’s ears. Droidbait is curled up in the crook of Del’s arm. Cutup bats lazily at Jesse’s fingers, stretched out comfortably on his back. 

“Just rest, Fives,” Hardcase orders gently. Fives sighs in resignation. There’s no escape. Fine, fine. He’ll rest. But only for a minute, as long as his batchmates are safe.

Eventually, five content purrs fill the room. Fives falls asleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is just the Force deciding that Fives deserves to rest and relax for at least five kriffing minutes and deciding that the easiest way to get him to do that is to make him tiny and fluffy. Let Fives rest 2k20 ha! Anyway, thanks for reading, I appreciate it! @meridiansdominoes on tumblr for more!


End file.
